At the start of the season, the third midfield tier was an easy source of points, with exciting players like Ryan Fraser and Andre Schurrle. They have since, rightfully, been promoted out of this group and now selecting the right player out of Tier 3 midfield is more important than ever. While this tier lacks the high-upside, flashy names found in others, this is where you can find the most differential options to make up ground in your matchups and leagues. So, to help you maximize your points potential, let's try to make sense of the wild west that is Tier 3 midfielders.
Many different players have finished at the top of this tier in different weeks, which has made picking the right player so difficult of late, but there is one player who represents a constant amidst the chaos: Aaron Mooy.
The Huddersfield midfielder is coming off an incredible outing in Matchweek 13, which saw him rack up an impressive 35.9 points. While his two goals made up the majority of those points, he still would have scored a personal high of 15.9 without them. This is very important when considering Mooy's value, as he is unreliable as a goalscorer, having never scored more than four goals in a season in England. While this would be a damning indictment for many players in our game, Mooy shrugs it off without issue and continues to post solid weeks regardless.
The Australia international has been the driving force for Huddersfield ever since he arrived in West Yorkshire in 2016-17. During his debut season in the Championship, he not only helped ensure promotion for the Terriers, but also boasted the unique accomplishment of leading his club in both chances created and tackles won. Once he reached the Premier League, Mooy demonstrated these skills yet again as the only player in the league who created more than 50 chances while also winning 60 tackles. The players that led those categories in the league last season were Kevin De Bruyne and Idrissa Gueye respectively, which should help offer context into just how strange and unique Aaron Mooy is as a player.
This diverse skill set was put to fantastic use last season as, in the ESPN game, Mooy would have finished as the fifth best midfielder outside of the top six clubs, and the 28th best outfielder overall. He averaged a very respectable 9.8 points per game, finishing top 25 in a third of our 15 scoring categories. This ability to impact matches in so many different ways gives Mooy an incredibly high floor in fantasy, and makes him a guaranteed starter for Huddersfield.
These traits certainly have not escaped the eye of manager David Wagner who, realizing Mooy's broad skillset, has already utilized him at four different positions this season. Impressively, this constant change in usage has yet to negatively impact his usefulness to the club, nor his fantasy value, as he's averaging between 7.5 and 13.5 points per game regardless of position. Basically, he brings value so long as he's on the pitch, and he almost always is having logged more minutes than any another midfielder at the club over the past two seasons.
On the season, Mooy was averaging 8.6 points per game coming into this week, and that was before he scored his first two goals of the season. This, as mentioned earlier, reaffirms that the Australian midfielder is one of the least goal-dependent midfielders in the game. His successes, both past and present, are almost entirely due to his versatility. There have already been eight matches this season in which he had at least one action in six or more of our positive categories, and he ranks top 50 in all but three of them. As for his club, Mooy already leads Huddersfield in goals (2), shots off target (16), chances created (19), passes (488), and tackles won (25) this season.
As a result, the Terriers' midfielder has now taken the overall lead in the third midfield tier with 129.8 points. If his point total isn't impressive enough for you, it's worth noting that his 35.9 point tally from last week is higher than any other player in the tier. Also, unlike literally every other player in his tier, the Huddersfield man has scored 5 or more points in every single match this season. That trend does not look set to stop this week either as Mooy comes up against a Brighton side who have the second lowest possession percentage in the Premier League this season (41 percent) and third worst passing accuracy (71.6 percent). This should give Mooy ample opportunity to dominate the midfield against Brighton, just as he did last season when he recorded double-digit points against them in both matches in 2017-18.
So, for this week, Mooy looks like a must-start and, considering he has been both the most consistent and highest-scoring player in Tier 3 this season, he could be for a very long time.